The New Hire 1

I think it’s about time that we start a discussion about Marijuana here on this page.

Everyone grab your clutching pearls and head to the fainting couch:

First off, I very rarely partake of illegal narcotics.
Yes, that is your cue to hit the couch.

I did, once upon a time. I loved LSD, coke, shrooms, weed, MDMA, and GHB. I did them on at least a bi-monthly basis, in large amounts. Weed especially. It was plentiful in Long Beach, CA, and easily acquired. Wake and bake, homies!

That was ages ago. Now I’m a full grown adult, and I have shit to do, so no, I have no place in my life for things that will distract me like that. I can’t sink 8 hours into an acid binge anymore, or spend a weekend fucked up to the gills on a cocktail of narcotics. I have shit to do.

Not saying you’re bad if you do. If your schedule and responsibilities allow you to pile some molly on top of mushrooms and weed? More power to you. Hell, I’m envious.

Now, here’s the thing:

I have truthfully smoked weed fewer than ten times in the last twelve years. Really.

I am not a stoner, by any means.

But it’s time to fucking legalize this shit, already. Legalize it, tax it, and enjoy it. Nancy Reagan polluted my brain with bullshit when I was a kid. She can roast in hell. Marijuana is not a harmful drug, by any means, and if it was legal? Yeah, I’d probably smoke it more often. Cuz if it’s legal, why the fuck not? It makes you feel awesome without fucking up your kidneys and liver like my current booze habit does.

Some TV doc once said that he didn’t think an honest conversation about the medical applications of marijuana could be had until the threats to its users weren’t happening anymore. Hell if I know what the truth is, but I’m pretty sure I’m not gonna get it from government funded agenda-based “reefer madness” folks any moreso than Willie Nelson.

I agree. I’ve partaken in MJ once, when I was really drunk, and it amounted to an extended cigarette buzz for me. So I’ve just never had the urge to use it anymore, at the risk of arrest due to it being illegal. But I think legalizing it, and putting a tax equal to tobacco would be a great idea.

I don’t mind if pot (or any other drug) is legalized. But, otoh, if you choose to do drugs, you should bear the responsibilities for it. That includes paying your medical bills and treatments, supplies, etc. Most crime in this country revolves either directly or indirectly around drugs. Legalizing drugs will simply shift gang related crime to a different source of income. We will see.

I say that’s between you and your insurance company. They have every right to charge higher premiums for risky behaviors. But if you don’t have insurance, you should have to pay your own way for consequences of those behaviors.

In fact, some insurance companies are doing just that. They’re refusing to cover injuries sustained in risky, *lawful* behaviors, like horseback riding, motorcycling (on- or off-road or both), and adult bicycling. That little provision was buried in HIPAA. They put in a provision that an insurance company couldn’t deny you coverage based on your participation in those activities, and they promptly took it and twisted it to where they’d cover you but they wouldn’t pay for it if you hurt yourself.

So now we have this situation where if you get blasted on booze, lose control of your car, and end up in a bridge abutment, your health insurer will pay for your medical treatments; but if you’re riding your motorcycle stone cold sober, and someone rear-ends you while you’re at a stoplight, you may well be SOL.

I’d be a lot more okay with this if we had a free market in health insurance, but we don’t. As a practical matter, most Americans have to take whatever their employer offers and subsidizes.

I didn’t say that. I don’t believe insurance is a ‘right’, it’s a business (I oppose all gov’t mandated ins.) . They can cover what they want and you can pay for it or not. If you’re into high speed racing, you should pay more for auto insurance than the guy who only drives 10 miles back and forth to work.

You get high and drive, operate machinery etc., insurance companies have every right to charge more.

Yes. Smokers already pay much higher premiums. Right now, as far as I know, insurance companies only question pre-existing health conditions and if you smoke. If insurance companies felt drinking was such a health risk, they would include it in their screening. Studies have shown, however, that light drinking is actually providing some benefits health wise. Meth (for example) does not. Regardless, choices people make with their own lives should have the appropriate consequences. Perhaps then some will think twice.

Dude, I pay for medical insurance to fix the shit in my body what’s fucked up, not to ask a bunch of questions about how it *got* fucked up. It’s not a car, it’s my liver. Whether it’s fucked up because of the shit injected by the Army or fucked up because of shit that *I* put in my body is only your concern if it alters the method of treatment.

Peaceful voluntary actions have no business being regulated by government. At all. Ever. That includes the armed robbery you refer to as “taxes” so I don’t support legalization and its unavoidable regulation. I much prefer decriminalization. Remove all criminal penalties surrounding not just marijuana, but all drugs, and let people do what they wish to their own meat.

No argument. I don’t do it for the same reasons you cite and if it were legal I still likely wouldn’t do it out of fear for my lungs but if booze and cigs are legal (and they should be) then pot should be as well.

We’ve had at least 3 presidents we’re pretty sure who’ve smoked weed Clinton, Bush 43, Obama), supposedly even a 4th who toked up in the White House (question is, was it Kennedy or Nixon?). Yeah, WAY past time for it to be legalized. The presidency has never really been into Prohibition, whether it was alcohol or weed.

And no one use “there’s no way to test for stoned drivers”. Yes there is. A cop in Canada developed a test to tell if drivers are currently stoned. And no stoners, this isn’t the presence for traces test in hair that still shows up a month after your last puff, it’ll tell if you smoked in the last few hours. Or you could just look for bloodshot eyes and someone trying to stifle a giggle.

Yeah, instead of Dominic’s method, I’d just stick a bag of Doritos in the window of the cruiser and watch how often the suspect looks at them. “Dude, I’ll give you $50 for those Doritos” is, of course, an instant fail; “Dude, I’ll trade you a quarter-ounce for those Doritos” even more so.

Speaking as a former police officer, marijuana really was and is the least of my concerns. It’s pretty much harmless and whenever we were called out to deal with someone smoking it, it was usually just a friendly “Take that inside- it’s illegal.” The only time I ever arrested anyone for drug possession is when they had a shitload of it, or had been stopped/investigated on other, more serious violations.

Obviously, I don’t smoke the stuff. I probably wouldn’t have had that job if I did. But am I concerned with what other people do in their free time as long as they aren’t hurting anyone else? Fuck no. I have no problems with marijuana being legalized. It would save a lot of resources for the higher-ups and give people the freedom to do what they want without having to fear unjust consequences for it.

I would like to see limitations on it though, like with cigarettes/alcohol. Smoke-free zones optional on private property, don’t smoke while driving, etc.

I’m just thinking how much damage and violence occurs because of alcohol intake, compared to that resulting from marijuana intake.

Some of the people arguing against legalisation for medicinal purposes use the ‘it’s bad for your lungs’ reason, or ‘it’s impossible to tell how much you’re taking in because every strain is different’.
God forbid you, y’know, extract the active properties and produce capsules/pills containing a set strength and quantity for patients to take. The risk of possible munchies is way better than the side-effects of most heavy-duty painkillers and other treatments that could replaced with a little THC.
(Yes, I qualify on multiple counts for those states that have medicinal marijuana. The UK has zero areas that allow it. Grr.)

This is a pretty good example of my point on how you and I may have many differences, but agree on policy. I feel that the war on drugs is a failed attempt and that we’d be far better off just legalizing weed as well as a few other of the currently prohibited substances. Would I smoke if it were legal? Probably not. I find Mary Jane to be nasty stuff, personally. However, I would not be judgmental towards someone else lighting up, and I don’t think that it should be illegal to do so. Now, if someone is caught operating machinery (automobiles included) or bearing arms while high, the hammer should be brought down hard on them, just as it is with alcohol.

Fully agreed. That said, the ratio of drunks I’ve seen driving vs. stoners driving is overwhelmingly disparate, by factors on factors. Mostly because it’s been my experience that when someone is high, they’re really, really unlikely to drive. Or go out their front door. Or even get off the couch until the Dragon Ball Z marathon is over.

Having never used personally (always in a circumstance where someone can ask me to pee in a cup, not because I’m not at least curious), I sort of have to wonder. Isn’t it not WORKING if it doesn’t remove part of your attention from the world he’s actually placed in?

Removing part of your attention in the short term is absolutely the point. However, I believe the point of Asterisk’s post was that it had lasting effects. On that point, I agree with Owen; I seem to recall that there’s little if any scientific evidence for that, and my anecdotal experience is that there are some sharp-as-a-tack former stoners out there. I know a few people with PhDs (in both social and hard sciences) who used to smoke marijuana regularly; I don’t think I know any with tenure yet, but they’re all a little young for that anyway, so give it time. (For that matter, I know a few people who do have tenure that I suspect are also former smokers, but I don’t know for sure.)

I’ve also known more than a few former stoners who seem to be permanently brain-burned. None of them stopped at marijuana, though, and I suspect the true culprits are other chemicals.

Plus, I have to give him credit for geography. The gun issue in Manhattan is different than the gun issue in rural Michigan, where I’m from.

I an pro-gun in both cases, but at least I admit there is a fucking difference. Stewart lives pretty much entirely in just one of those environments, and this his opinions are pretty standard for them.

There is no legitimate argument against this. Legalize it, tax it to the ceiling like tobacco and alcohol. Shift the U.S. tobacco farmer to some standardized strength cannabis and save their farms. Enforce the penalties of driving intoxicated and performing certain jobs intoxicated and just get on with things. The police industry will just shift from civil forfeiture income to citation income.

Is there actually more money coming in than going out, though? It seems, from what I’ve seen, that the big civil forfeitures come from hard narcotics; major marijuana busts seem to mostly involve burning fields of the stuff.

Besides, if I were a cop, I’d much rather give 100 stoners citations than make one major drug bust–your chances of getting shot in the line of duty are much lower. (Hell, your chances of getting any backtalk worse than “whoa, bummer, man” are much lower.)

Excessively high federal taxes will, of course, encourage a black market in unregulated marijuana, which is a net loss all around.

Excessively high state and local taxes will encourage smuggling of marijuana from low tax states, which is a net loss to the state with the excessive taxes.

Just slap a 10% excise tax on it and call it good — high enough to generate revenue, low enough it’s not really worth the risk to smuggle it in any major or organized amounts.

But for God’s sake, can we just legalize it without the BS smoke and mirrors of “medical marijuana”? (No, injesting uncontrolled organics, without proper pharmaceutical grade purity of ingredients is not “medicine”, any more than red wine is “medicine”.) Let’s just be honest and admit that grown-ups can make their own decisions, and if it doesn’t hurt others, it’s none of our damned business.

For the record, I think anyone who smokes marijuana is an idiot. But then, I smoke cigarettes, which is nearly as stupid. So it isn’t that _I_ want to get stoned — I honestly don’t think it’s any of my business (and therefor, none of the government’s damned business – they are supposed to work for us, after all) if sovereign adults choose to get stoned.

So would you accept measured amounts of the THC pure extract administered to patients in pill form as medicinal? Because there’s a lot of evidence out there supporting the genuine beneficial effects of tetra-hydroxycannabinol.

Not only do you now have a _known_and_predictable_ level of the active ingredient (so you can get the dosage correct), but you also have known, predictable, and minimized levels of harmful or counterproductive byproducts and contaminants.

I’m against smoking, personally. Vile habit, stinks the place out, ages your skin, crinkles up your eyes, yellow your teeth and fingers, makes you reek fit to scare the rats out of town. If I was going to ban something, it’d be smoking.

I didn’t say marijuana and I didn’t say tobacco. More accurately, I didn’t say I’d ban tetra-hydroxycannabinol, cannabinidiol or nicotine. You want to wear a nicotine patch or chew that gum stuff (and dispose of it properly) or take sugar pills with a little nicotine added or chew cannabis leaves (do people do that?) or make tea with it or bake it into your fudge cakes or extract and co-distill it with ethanol, water it down to 40% abv and drink it … go ahead. You’re not smoking and you’re not mixing intoxicants with aircraft, motor vehicles, firearms or other power tools.

I find giving the gov’t another revenue stream more offensive then folks toking up. Legalize, but don’t tax it sky high. While still somewhat early in the process, the social experiment in CO seems to be going well so far.

Since legalizing in CO, violent crime is down in Denver by something like 10% in the last six months, tens of millions of dollars in new tax revenue, and the State is looking at ten or twelve million in savings in enforcement costs between pot and said crime drops. Prices, after a few months of $450-600/oz prices are, at least in cities with major competition, are settling down into the $150-250 range. Eventually the smaller markets will follow suit.

What’s not to like about it? Okay, a handful of morons have withdrawn themselves from the gene pool trying to extract hash oil with flammable chemicals and three or four cases of dickery while stoned but, all in all, things are better than the same time a year ago. After 27 years of abstention, I was given a marinol scrip eight months ago; damned if it didn’t work. Turns out smoking works better and costs significantly less, even with the “Are you freaking JOKING‽” prices in most stores just now.

The main problem we’re having in Colorado atm is something that needs to be addressed, IMO…Labeling the edibles correctly. We actually had something happen that I’d never heard of…an OD death from MJ. They have candy bars that are effectively 16 hits from a normal sized bar…and for some reason, giving ‘candy’ to people with the munchies and a severe lack of common sense isn’t a good combination (The lack of common sense having little to do with the drug, IMO, btw)

That being said, I’ve supported legalization for a *long* time, though I never tried it ’til it was legal. Right now, the ‘problems’ from it are FAR less than either alcohol or ‘normal’ smoking, and the benefits Colorado has show are just unreal!

LD-50 testing in monkeys and rats five numbers ranging from 30 – 9000 mg/kg. IOW, you’d have to eat a case of marinol caps or most of a field of MJ. If there has ever been a verified OD fatality from any pot preparation, I’ll be damned if i can find it from CDC or Pub Med. Death by misadventure while stoned or deaths from a cocktail of drugs is another thing but that’s not what you claimed, is it? The guy who kacked it in WY was a suicide, not an OD. The guy in Denver who killed his wife doesn’t count either; he was on opiates and God knows what else along with his edibles when he went apeshit.

From memory, the LD50 values for small lab animals (like mice, rats and rabbits) actually go up with the animal’s size.

LD50 is normally measured in ng/kg (botulinum toxin and ricin), ug/kg (cyanide), mg/kg (ethanol and THC) and g/kg (sugar, maybe?) With a lot of poisons you find that the “per kilogram” part of that means the figures are pretty similar across species. With THC, they got … vague memory here … 300mg/kg for mice, 1000mg/kg for rats, 1500mg/kg for guinea pigs and 2500mg/kg for rabbits, or something like that, and hadn’t been able to establish LD50 for dogs, cats or monkeys because even the LDlo, the lowest lethal dose recorded, was over 1000mg/kg.

If the trend holds true, the LD50 for humans would be insanely high. To be fairly sure of killing someone, 1.5 x LD50 x body mass is a good target dose. To stand a chance of killing someone, it’s LDlo x body mass. Less than half the LDlo, you’re only going to kill someone with some sort of rare sensitivity issue that hadn’t affected previous testing.

Let’s take a guess at LDlo for something as large as a human, and call it 2g/kg. It’s just a guess. 2g/kg for a man is anywhere from 140g to 300g of THC. Let’s call it 200g. The stuff grown for compassion clubs, I’m told, is about 10% THC by mass. That’s 2kg of cannabis buds required, or 800g of skunk or 400g of White Widow … or 10kg of really mild weed.

For context, here’s Ocado’s page of bagged salads. They’re 50g to 300g, with quite a lot of 70g, 110g, 140g and 250g bags. There’s a 140g “watercress, rocket and spinach” there. 2kg of leaves would be … 14.3 of those. 14 of them and one little 50g bag … all in one sitting … just to get somewhere near the LDlo.

You wouldn’t necessarily have to do it all in 15 minutes. How quickly your body processes the stuff will probably be affected by quantities that large. It could also affect uptake, meaning your GIT would shut down and you simply wouldn’t be able to absorb it any faster than you processed it. I really don’t know.

I think a video of someone trying to eat 2kg of 10%-THC marijuana in a single sitting could get a lot of hits on YouTube, but then so would video of someone trying to eat 2kg of spinach in a single sitting. Can we legally make that video now? Maybe in WA or CO there could be an eating competition. They’d call us irresponsible, write us off the page …

Doesn’t THC store in fat tissue? LD calculations for _long_term_ use of fat soluable chemicals are somewhat tricky, because you can dramatically increase the amount of the chemical present in the bloodstream when a lot of fat is lost over a short period of time.

Not that I think there would still be any practical LD50 for THC in a human — any serious risk to life is from all the OTHER crap you’re injesting with the THC when you’re eating, drinking, or smoking marijuana products. . .

Let’s take smoking marijuana for instance. Marijuana smoke consists of roughly 88% “other” stuff that is NOT cannabinoids, but are combustion by products. That’s according to NORML, not the anti-drug crusaders.

Other research has definitively shown that marijuana smoke contains roughly the SAME the carcinogenic compounds as does tobacco smoke, in roughly the same concentrations. As well as almost all of the other toxic (but not carcinogenic) compounds found in tobacco smoke.

Environmental differences when growing (including, but not limited to, fertilizers, pesticides, and unintended pollutants) can cause two “identical” plants to have very different chemical profiles, and not just in the cannabinoids. Hell, chemical makeup can vary wildly ON DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE SAME PLANT. Biology is messy that way. (This is not unique to marijuana — the same issues apply to _any_ plant with medicinal qualities that is consumed in a non-purified manner.)

I favor legalizing weed, and a few other things. Most homicides in this country are criminal-on-criminal, involved in the drug market.

Moi? I last smoked weed around 1982. Quit doing that, before I quit doing other illegals, because I can’t hold my weed. One bong hit and I’m on the couch, missing the party.

I haven’t done any recreational drugs other than caffeine and theobromine since 1988 — Alcohol not since May 31, and nicotine ended for me on Sep 18 that year. I’m actually wilder and freakier now, than when I drank / used.

Washington State legalized marijuana last Novemeber and our local CBS affiliate KIRO TV-7 tested stoned drivers in this exclusive report. One of the drivers thinks is funny, funny, funny. Its well worth watching.

Couldn’t agree more. Al Capone was quoted as saying “prohibition is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
In criminalizing a harmless drug, we have inadvertantly fueled decades of un called for criminal enterprize. There was never a point or a need. I suggest everyone google jack hearers book, “the Emperor Wears No Clothes” -a free pdf – and look up in it the quotes from the Congressional Record, as to WHY marijuana wad actuslly made illegal in the first place. Then get very, very, angry, and write your congressman

Frankly, as long as the states don’t go overboard on taxation, the black market will mostly evaporate. It will exist, but who the fuck wants to deal with a shady asshole with a team of nunzios when you can just go to the store and grab a half ounce. Risk factor plays a huge factor in people’s decisions on this factor.

And to everyone saying something to the effect of “Durr hurr people who smoke pot are dumb,” let me just refer you to the fact that there are people better than you who smoke (vape/consume at their leisure) in their off time, and they run major companies. Stop drinking Nancy Reagan’s bullshitade. Your experience with idiot stoner one does not prove a hypothesis of “All people who do drugs are imbeciles”

I don’t want any pot, or anything that’s currently illegal…but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be treated more strictly than my drug of occasional choice, alcohol. Shouldn’t be allowed to provide it to kids (unless you’re a guardian and there’s a good reason, like a medical condition that benefits) but adults should be allowed, and responsible for what they do even under the influence.

Anyway, drugs are a State’s Rights issue. Voters should decide. The the voting majority OK’s it and the minority doesn’t like it – they can move. Course, the opposite holds true if the vote goes the other way.

Leaning a bit more towards anarchy than you do, I have to ask why it becomes ok if a SMALLER state is impeding your rights?
The only halfway-decent excuse I’ve heard is “because I can leave a state without asking permission by passport”.

Perhaps even recognize that the government doesn’t have the authority to ban recreational drugs. Because they fucking well don’t: The Volstead Act could not be enforced without the passage of the 18th Amendment because it was very well understood that the government did not have the authority to ban the possession, consumption or sale of any intoxicating substance without expressly granted authority to do so. Without a similar Constitutional Amendment to allow the government to ban – through outright prohibition through statute or de facto prohibition through abuse of the commerce clause and taxing authority – the government has no authority to ban recreational drugs. Not a shred of it. So, maybe the sensible thing would be to declare all those fucked up statutes to be invalid because they’re against pre-emptively higher statute which is also incorporated against the states. Meaning: The several states aren’t allowed restart the three ring shitshow called the Drug War.

As far as taxing grass goes? Why? What are the douchebags going to do with the money? It’ll just be used to fund the shitshow we call a government that’s infesting our republic. They’ll tell us that the money is for some wonderful pretense of a social program and spend the money on MRAPs and M4s for the Department of (re)Education.

The textiles industry successfully lobbied to make marijuana illegal by referring to it as marijuana (as opposed to the name that was used in the US at the time: hemp) and demonizing it as some horrible, mind-altering, permanently debilitating substance that caused skyrocketing crime rates and made baby angels die with every puff of smoke.

Fearing the worst (and not doing the research), Congress at the time passed the prohibition into law without realizing that many of them were signing the death warrants for their own family businesses (hemp plantations).

The textiles industry was motivated by fear – fear that the hemp industry would overtake the linen industry and put them out of business. It had nothing to do with the narcotic properties of the plant; it was purely motivated by money. Greed. Fear of not making more money.

Today, people have bought into the hype and myths surrounding the plant. Fear rules the day again. People are afraid of this horrible, demon fueled, highly addictive substance that makes Jesus cry and kills 100 times the number of brain cells that alcohol ever could. They don’t bother to do the research, because they’ve all seen Cheech and Chong movies, so they know everything there is to know about the evil Mexican weed, marijuana.

The majority of voters are idiots who don’t bother to research anything before writing their congressman or casting their vote. Their pastor or teacher or boss or neighbor or uncle told them everything they need to know in order to make an uninformed decision about the topic of the day, and BY GOD that’s how they’re going to vote! These are the same people who sign petitions to ban dihydrogen oxide.

In my world? We’d legalize hemp production and marijuana usage. There would be strict quality controls on consumables, and a small tax to help defray the cost of running the regulatory side of things. They would be testing for additives (not allowed in most cases) and toxins, mostly. Product would be sorted and sold according to strength, ranging from “Light Case of the Munchies” to “Drooling in the Corner All Night”. Anyone who commits a crime while under the influence of the drug will be treated like anyone else who commits a crime while under the influence of a substance of any kind. Industrial hemp would take off again, working its way into textiles, papers and a number of other product categories (imagine fiberglass made with hemp fibers, or hemp insulation batting – treated with fire retardants, of course).

I don’t smoke weed. I have enough problems without getting high (or drunk, I rarely drink either). But I don’t care if someone else does. It”s a ‘meh’ kind of issue for me. As long as they don’t get stupid in MY space, I don’t care if they smoke or drink or whatever. Just don’t wander over here and start talking shit to me while I’m working in the garage. Really.

I have never used pot. Never even experimented. Aside from the fact that it is smoked, a practice I loathe, it just never interested me in the slightest. Reality is entertaining enough for me, no urge to alter it.

However, I have long supported full legalization of it. It’s pointless to try to suppress something so many people really want and which is not destructive. Moreover, it’s stupid and wrong to do so. And a waste of resources.

Legalize it, tax it, hurt the criminal cartels a little while you’re at it. The police and the courts have better things to do.

I have heard that the Netherlands has been experiencing some problems from its legalization of drugs and has been backtracking on its liberalization policies. But I suspect that that is more to do with heroin and other substances, not the ganja.

High school stoner. Tried it my early-mid twenties but does weird shit to my heart. 29 now and random drug testing at work doesn’t help either. Far as I’m concerned though? Legalize it, make the driving laws the same as alcohol and tax it like beer. Heck if we switched back to hemp most products made by that are easy to harvest and quicker to renew then lumber. Take some of the burden off the lumber industry and deforestation. But anyway just my two cents. No reason it shouldn’t be just like beer and cigarettes in my mind.

“What was the problem with just smoking a joint, eating a couple of Twinkies, and going to sleep? Was that a problem? They say marijuana leads to other drugs. No it doesn’t, it leads to fucking carpentry. That’s the problem, folks. People getting high going, “Wow man, this box would make an excellent bong! *snort* This guy’s head would make an excellent bong! *snort*” Relax! That’s why I stopped doing drugs in the first place. Not because I didn’t like ‘em, but because I didn’t want to build anything, ok?” – Denis Leary

Everyone is against DUI, right? Generally anti-car-wreck? Great. As an ex-cop, I say there is no reason to treat pot differently than booze in this matter. I used to carry a tiny ruler in my pocket and was trained to use that and a stopwatch to accurately tell if a driver was stoned. We had training to address drivers high on dozens of substances, from banned drugs to over-the-counter to prescription to booze.

Public safety concern: addressed.

They need to update the 4473 to either ask ALL the probing personal questions about impairing conditions (does your doctor give you Xanax? How often do you drink margaritas? How well do you sleep at night? Ever been diagnosed with PTSD? Are your kids assholes?) or just drop the fucking line from the thing. I haven’t lied on it, but I bet I know a few dozen who have.

What gets me is the people who seem incapable of moderation…or admitting it in others. Every individual who indulges in marijuana use does not wander around in a drugged daze all the time, any more than everyone who buys alcohol uses it to go on blackout binges. It is possible (I promise, really, it is) to drink one glass of wine and stop. To take a hit from a joint…and put it out. To drink ONE beer and stop.

IMX, dealing with stoners, weed makes you stupid. People have the right to be stupid. However, stupidity, be it natural or recreationally acquired, does not absolve people of responsibility for their actions.

I’d relegalize weed in a moment, even though I would prefer never to partake. The War on Rights Drugs does far more damage than people taking drugs ever did.

I am one of a very few number of people who are, not to put too fine a point on it, exactly to whom marijuana’s dangerously exaggerated effects actually apply.

I’m allergic to it. And not in a “oh, I cough when the smoke gets in my face” or “I sneeze” sort of way.

In a jab-me-with-an-Epi-Pen-and-haul-ass-to-the-ER sort of way.

And guess where I live?
Washington State.

And how many pot stores / dispensaries are there within elbow-crawling distance of my house?Six (elbow-crawling distance meaning the 300 or so feet a truly stoned person might take an hour to traverse while observing the flowers, interesting garden artwork, the graffiti mural in the alleyway, and/or standing next to the Danish bakery in drooling, pre-Cookie Monsteresque bliss while desperately trying to calculate exactly how many chocolate croissants they can buy with the cash they have on hand).

And did I vote for the legalization of marijuana in Washington State?
Yes I did.

And if someone who is more allergic to marijuana smoke, bud, leaves, residue, butter, resin, and clothing worn when people are smoking/vaping it than the average peanut allergy sufferer is to a jar of Skippy is perfectly fine with the legalization of marijuana, well then.